"Health News - Medicine, Diet and Fitness"

Jayasimha Murthy, MBBS
University of Texas

CHICAGO, Oct. 23 — Remote infrared imaging to monitor breathing appears promising as way to diagnose sleep apnea, researchers said here.
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ST. LOUIS, Sept. 21 — The value of bumper pads on baby cribs as a cushion against bumps and bruises may be outweighed by the small risk of death, researchers said. Action Points
Explain to interested patients that bumper pads for cribs and bassinets may help prevent minor injuries at the cost of a small risk of death.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that if parents do use a bumper pad that it be “thin, firm, well-secured, and not pillow-like.”

Over the past 20 years, 27 bumper-related suffocation and strangulation deaths have been reported in a national database, said Bradley T. Thach, M.D., of Washington University here, and colleagues, in the September issue of the Journal of Pediatrics.

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AMSTERDAM, Sept. 20 — A glass of merlot or perhaps sauvignon blanc with dinner may offer modest benefits for patients with type 2 diabetes, said researchers here.Action Points
Explain to patients that the study was small, and that further study is needed to determine whether the effects the authors saw would hold up in a larger population.

Note, too, that the study was published as an abstract and presented at a conference. The data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

In a small study, teetotalers with confirmed type 2 diabetes who agreed to drink a 150 mL (five ounce) glass of wine with dinner daily for three months had modest but significant reductions (P =0.015) in fasting plasma glucose compared with controls who drank non-alcoholic diet beer, reported Iris Shai, Ph.D., of Ben Gurion University in Beer-Sheva, Israel, and colleagues.

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Ronnie Fass, M.D.
University of Arizona
Tucson

PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 17 — Half of all patients with nighttime symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease have sleep problems and such patients also score lower on quality of life measures, including mental and physical function, according to studies reported here.
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